Cement-based dry or ready-to-use compositions for mortars or plasters are generally in the form of powdered products and are known to have a significant dust emission rate, e.g., during the manufacture, packaging or use thereof.
This dust emission poses health problems to the workers and the work conditions of same.
In addition, the dust soils the local environment in which the materials are stored or handled (factory or construction site).
Furthermore, the finest particles which blow away easily can be low-dose adjuvants or additives. Such being the case, these constituents are costly and play an important part in the composition or with regard to the properties of the end material. The blowing away of said constituents can modify the constitution of the composition and result in a loss of performance in the end material.
In addition, the fine particles of the compositions can be of a hygroscopic and/or electrostatic nature and can cause additional difficulties in implementing or using the dry compositions, e.g., problems of flowability, adhesion and “dust explosion” type risks.
In order to reduce dust emissions, “anti-dust” additives have been used in formulating the compositions.
For example, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,776 which describes the use of polytetrafluoroethylene for limiting the dust emissions of cement or mortar compositions. However, these constituents promote the penetration of air into the composition, thereby altering the physicochemical properties of the material, whereby it is necessary to add additional defoaming agent additives.
International Publication No. WO 2006/084588 describes the use of hydrocarbon compounds as additives for reducing the dust produced by dry construction compositions.
However, among known additives, some are ineffective and obtaining a significant “anti-dust” effect requires considerable quantities of said additives.
In addition, some additives are costly and need to be prepared by constraining or difficult-to-implement methods.
In addition, some additives can impair the properties and performance of mortars or concretes and, for example, workability, strength, adhesive, and impermeability and durability properties.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to mitigate these failures and disadvantages of the related art. For example, it would be beneficial to provide dry compositions for cement-based materials which enable effective limitation of the emissions and blowing away of dust during the manufacture, transport or handling thereof. It would be beneficial to provide low-cost, practical and easy-to-use compositions which, for example, have good stability and flowability properties, etc. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to provide dry compositions which enable the obtainment of end materials having good physicochemical and particularly workability, durability and compressive strength properties.